Privacy

Privacy Policy Statement

PKF Australia acknowledges the importance of your privacy and is committed to protecting any personal information we collect about you by adhering to the Australian Privacy Principle's (APP's) and the requirements of the Privacy Act 1998, ("the Act").

This Policy sets out our approach to gathering personal information, and our approach to the use and dissemination of such information. We undertake to treat all client and other personal information in our possession in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

By "personal information" we mean information or an opinion about an identified individual, or about an individual reasonably identifiable from the information.

Collection of personal information

The kind of personal information we may collect include your name and birth date; your contact information, including postal and residential addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers, and email addresses; where relevant your financial information as well as government identifiers such as your tax file number, ABN or registered business names.

We collect personal information directly from you, such as when you meet with us, provide your information by document, telephone or facsimile, by forwarding us an email, or by submitting personal information by using our website.

In some cases personal information may be provided by an entity/person authorised by you to do so, such as your employer or a corporate or business entity with which you are involved either as a principal, member or beneficiary, for the purpose of providing services to or on your behalf. The privacy of any personal information provided in this manner will be protected in accordance with the APP's.

Personal information is collected in order to conduct our business, to provide and market our services to you, including purposes necessary or incidental to the provision of services to you, or any purposes that you may reasonably expect, for any other purpose authorised by law or required to comply with our legal obligations, or for any other purposes disclosed to or authorised by you. This may include disclosure to organisations that provide us with and support services, and professional advice. The collection will be fair, lawful and not intrusive. The nature of this information will vary according to your relationship with the firm and the work we are performing.

We will not collect sensitive information unless you have consented; it is required by law - or in other special specified circumstances, for example, relating to health services provision and individual or public health or safety.

Use and disclosure of personal information

We will hold your personal information for as long as is required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law. We will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify any personal information about you once the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected or as authorised or required by law.

We will only disclose personal information for the purpose it was collected unless you have consented, or you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure, or the use is for direct marketing where we expect the information may be of interest to you. Should you receive such for direct marketing material and do not want to receive it in the future, we will provide you with a simple "unsubscribe" (opt out) method in the direct marketing material.

We will provide personal information to third parties where we are required to by law, where it is reasonable for us to do as part of providing services to you, where our advisors request it or where you have expressly asked us to do so.

We will never sell your personal information.

A review of personal information will be made on a regular basis to ensure that the information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.

Website collection of personal information

We may record your IP address and details of your access to our sites, we may place cookies on your computer to enable your web browser to search and find us efficiently. We use cookies to monitor the traffic to the various pages on our website, for statistical and website improvement purposes only. This information is anonymous and will not enable you to be identified. You are able to disable cookies and applets via your computers web browser however this may restrict access to some webpages and services within our website.

Data security of personal information

We have taken reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Staff are required to sign a confidentiality clause as a part of their contracts of employment. They are also required to adhere to and comply with our Privacy Policy. There are a range of physical and electronic procedures to ensure that privacy is safeguarded. However, the internet is not secure and we cannot guarantee the security of any information sent to us via the internet. We have also appointed a Privacy Officer who is responsible for the application of PKF Australia's Privacy Policy to ensure that the practices, procedures and systems adopted by PKF Australia are applied in an open and transparent manner.

Access to and correction of personal information

You may request access to your personal information by contacting the Privacy Officer. Except where some legal restrictions might apply you will be provided access to any personal information we have collected or hold about you. We will also update information if you let us know that it is inaccurate or non-current.

Complaints

Should you have any complaints about our treatment of your personal information please direct this by email to our privacy officer on: [email protected] We will treat any complaint about a breach of privacy legislation or any relevant registered code seriously, and will investigate any breach of which we become aware - including how it occurred and how best to prevent such a breach occurring again.

If you believe that we have not adequately addressed your complaint, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Commonwealth Government identifiers

We will not use Commonwealth government identifiers (Identifiers) as an identifier of individuals. Identifiers will only be used or disclosed in the circumstances permitted by the Act.

Anonymity

In many cases, you will need to provide your real name when interacting with us. You may however - wherever lawful and practicable – use a pseudonym (or simply not identify yourself) when dealing with us. For example, if you have a complaint or concern about our site, or a general question about any of our products, you are welcome to contact us without identifying yourself. In some cases, however, if you do not provide us with this information we may not be able to fully provide you with our services or respond adequately to you. For clarification on when you must identify yourself, please contact our Privacy Officer. You may use a pseudonym – or simply not identify yourself – when making such an enquiry.

Transborder data flows

There may be occasions when personal information is transferred outside of Australia within our global network. Generally this will occur in the provision of services to you and the transfer of this information outside of Australia will have been disclosed to, and authorised by, you as part of the terms of our engagement. When transferring personal information outside Australia within our global network, we will comply with the requirements of the Act that relate to transborder data flows. Where the international transfer of personal information outside is to countries whose privacy laws may be considered not to provide the same level of protection as Australia, our commitments to safeguard your privacy will not change and remains subject to existing obligations and this Policy.

Sensitive information

During the course of business PKF Australia may at times be required to collect sensitive information about individuals. Collection of any sensitive information will be done in accordance with the APP's and the Act.

Updating privacy policy

We will review our Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that it is in line with best practice and remains current with any legislative requirements. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be incorporated into a new version of this Policy, stating the date from which it will operate. Our commitment to your personal information will be governed by the most recent and up-to-date policy in place.

Contacting us

PKF Australia welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy and would like further information, please contact our Privacy Officer on [email protected] or by calling one of our offices during business hours.

Get in touch

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